Spin-orbit interaction and all-semiconductor spintronics

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give a brief review and trace the present-day perspectives to exploit the spin-orbit interaction in conventional nonmagnetic semiconductor nanostructures. We demonstrate theoretically that the structures can be used to design basic elements of highspeed spintronic devices. In particular we discuss spin filtering, spin-dependent confinement, and scattering in all-semiconductor nanostructures.